All my worldly possessions in one yellow truck

A few weeks back, Karen and I began debating whether we should hire movers to help pack our stuff into the rental truck. We didn't want to pay the thousands to actually movers take it cross-country, but we're not so hot at the loading part.

At the time, I was against the idea. We have friends with strong backs and plenty of time.

I was very wrong.

Today, the movers saved our ass. They packed 2,000 gallons of crap into a 1,000-gallon box. Meanwhile, we were able to clean. And clean. And clean some more! Why is that a good thing? Because that's that much less cleaning to do tomorrow. And plus, my fridge is immaculate. Now that there's no food in it. There's still five beers and a half-empty can of cat food, though.

Tonight we'll grab some dinner with friends and relax a bit before waking up in our barren home and scrubbing it clean. So far, everything's on schedule. Strangely, I've been most stressed about getting the truck loaded. (I took a wild guess on the truck size, but there was no going back.) With that done, the only other challenge is getting over the Donner Pass, then the Rockies, at a time when there's already snow falling in the high elevations.

Sometimes I think the only thing harder than moving would have been staying put.